About me

On the origins of the crisis

CJR has a fantastic interview with Michael Hudson on the origins of the financial crisis, and his background reporting on poverty issues becomes extremely relevant. It's one of the best resources I've seen, with about a dozen links to background stories, and Hudson's perspective goes really deep.

I particularly found this statistic enlightening:

Between 1998 and 2006, more than 60 percent of subprime loans were refinances. About 30 percent were used for home purchases. Less than one in ten, only 9 percent, were first-time home buyers. This idea that subprime loans were basically used by people who would never have a chance to own a house is a bit misleading. A significant percentage of people who got subprime loans could have qualified for prime loans.